Monday, 11 August 2014

Alien: Sea of Sorrows (Book Review)

The second in the new trilogy of books continuing the Alien mythos, Sea of Sorrows takes things in a fresh direction. In the far future, long after the events of the films, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation persists in its efforts to colonise new worlds. On the planet LV178, an accident brings Alan Decker into contact with the creatures that killed his ancestor during humanity’s first encounter. Strong-armed into accompanying a team of mercenaries to a forgotten dig site, he soon discovers that he has a far more personal connection with these monsters than he ever imagined.

6 comments:

I've been thinking on that comment about Ripley, and it might be justified for the Aliens to see her that way depending on which continuity the book takes place in.

If it takes place in the Prometheus continuity, then it's justified because that meant she blew up their one and only hive as well as killing their one and only queen (at the time), if it's in the Aliens: Colonial Marines continuity (and I really hope not) then it's not justified, because the explosion took out relatively few Aliens, and if it's in the Aliens: Berserker continuity, where they were like intergalactic locusts and you had to call in Xeno Busters to deal with them (not kidding about that premise, but it was still a good book), then it isn't justified since they were spread throughout the galaxy.

Well, that might have worked but there is more than one hive in existence. The group in the book stumble upon a nest of xenomorphs in an ancient ruin, so they had more than one hive or settlement overall. Even if the one on LV-426 was the biggest one, Ripley was not directly responsible for the explosion and it seems odd they would not have recognised her given the character's fight against the drone in the first film.

The other issue is that if this does link into other continuities, as you said, there are bigger threats from her. Just sticking with Aliens: Berserker for a moment, even the Xeno Busters themselves aren't the biggest threat there given that series is a part of the AvP comics universe. Ripley is a powerful character who accomplished much, but adding this mythical iconography of her in the minds of the xenomorphs who regard her as the Destroyer of all is a little hard to swallow.

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed Sea of Sorrows, but it just feels like this was a point which could have been far better explained and outlined in a re-write.

That book (berserker) did also have a separate novel that treated itself as its own separate thing without any crossovers at all, it's weird how the comics will also have novels that do that (they're usually much better).

I also have to wonder how the aliens know, because even if they do have a collective intelligence, it should have limits and not span across several thousand light years, otherwise there's no good reason they should ever lose.

That is a good point about her not being responsible for the explosion, but I think it makes sense for the aliens to blame her since she showed up, and then right after leaving the hive exploded, and since they know nothing about what was actually causing the explosion (if they did then they would have moved) it makes sense to blame her.

Something else I think I should mention, the reason I brought up that Alien Berserker book was not because I think it's a staple in the series, I just wanted to use it as an example, there's plenty of books in the series that all seem to have their own continuity and I thought Berserker does a good job at representing the continuity with the aliens as some galactic vermin.

You're more than welcome. Honestly, despite my issues, if you were to try and write for this universe again i'd definitely pick up the book. For all my criticisms, you were far better at treating them as a horror element rather than cannon fodder than the vast majority of Aliens literature.